Dr. Jamila L. McWhirter is Assistant Professor of Choral Music Education at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in choral music education, applied voice, conducts the MTSU Women’s Chorale, and supervises student teaching interns. She is also the founder/director of the female a cappella ensemble MTSU Bel Canto.

McWhirter currently serves on the Tennessee Music Educators Association Executive Board as the TNMEA Higher Education Chair. She is also currently serving as the TNMEA CMENC Faculty Advisor through which she founded/organized the Tennessee CMENC State Wide Fall Kick-Off. McWhirter has also just begun duties as the Middle Tennessee Vocal Association Collegiate Chair. In the past, she has served on the boards of the Missouri Choral Directors Association (State Treasurer; District Representative), Missouri Music Educators Association (District President; District Past President; District Vocal Vice President) Missouri Fine Arts Academy, and festival rating committees for the Missouri State High School Activities Association. .

She has been and continues to serve as a presenter, clinician, guest conductor, and adjudicator throughout the United States. McWhirter recently conducted the Tennessee Mid-State Women’s Honor Choir and is scheduled to conduct the Tennessee Middle School Mass Choir in the fall of 2008. Her choirs have been selected for performance at the Missouri Music Educators Association State Convention and Carnegie Hall. The MTSU Women’s Chorale has been selected to perform for the 70th Anniversary Gala Celebration of Shawnee Press in June 2009. Her applied voice students have been named to many prestigious choirs including the ACDA National High School Honor Choir, ACDA National Women’s Honor Choir, and the Missouri All-State Choir.

Her music education research has been published in the Journal of Research in Music Education and presented at the National MENC Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah. She was also recently a presenter at the MTNA National Group Piano and Piano Pedagogy Symposium in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

McWhirter’s memberships include Pi Kappa Lambda, ACDA, MENC, TMEA, MTVA, College Music Society, and a patroness member of Sigma Alpha Iota. She has been named numerous times to Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers, Who’s Who in American Education, Who’s Who Among American Women, Who’s Who in America, and the National Chancellor’s List. She was recently honored as one of the 100 Most Beautiful People of Murfreesboro by the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Before coming to Murfreesboro, McWhirter taught choral music and served as a fine arts department chair in the public schools of Missouri, where her choirs consistently received superior ratings and honors. She also served as adjunct faculty for Central Missouri State University, Stephens College, and Missouri Baptist University. She was awarded a position as a doctoral teaching assistant at the University of Missouri, where she received her PhD in choral music education. Her other degrees include an MA in choral music education from the University of Central Missouri and a BM in vocal/general music education from Southwest Baptist University. She is currently in her twentieth year of teaching.